This holiday, feel as good as you look in Kate Spade mittens and hats knitted by women from war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina

I've always been conflicted about working in fashion. Conflicted about celebrating an industry of frivolity and creating enthusiasm for things that women don't absolutely need (though, let's face it, it sure can feel like "need" sometimes). In sum, I live in a world fairly untouched by the vagaries of life, let alone the ravages of war. But thanks to Deborah Lloyd, creative director of Kate Spade, and Zainab Salbi, who founded Women for Women International (WfWI) in 1993 to help female survivors of war rebuild their lives, I have the chance to add some consciousness to my consumption this holiday. WfWI takes a holistic approach: educating women about their legal and reproductive rights and providing psychological counseling, job-skills training, and microcredit loans—the last being where Kate Spade comes in. The accessory- and apparelmaker has contracted with a WfWI micro-credit and jobs program in Bosnia and Herzegovina to make mittens, hats, and scarves for the holiday season.

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Like me, you may remember the fall of Yugoslavia and the shock that people felt at a European civil war so late in the twentieth century. It just didn't seem possible that, only 10 years after the 1984 Winter Olympics, Sarajevo could be under siege, with no food, water, or electricity—and residents being picked off by snipers' bullets as they reached out a window to pull fruit from a tree. By the time the Dayton Accords ended the strife in 1995, nearly 250,000 people were dead. "I remember hearing the bombs when I was living in Ancona [Italy, across the Adriatic Sea from Sarajevo], working for Byblos," says the British-born Lloyd, with whom I make a three-day tour of Sarajevo and the surrounding mountainous region. "So there was a connection to Bosnia for me, but I didn't realize how horrible the atrocities were. Sarajevo feels like an Italian provincial town, until you see the bullet-shelled buildings and listen to what happened to these women."

Begzada Salkic, Nudzejma Salihagic, Amra Begic—these are just a few of the survivors of the Bosnian war I meet who are working for Kate Spade. Some were raped by enemy combatants, others lost husbands, fathers, brothers—men who were not only beloved but usually the women's sole source of financial support. "I'm writing a diary of the trip for our website," Lloyd says, "and I remember the woman I met at a refugee camp who lost her husband, saw her children shot, and was then taken to a rape camp. It just floors you and stays with you." It also motivates you, apparently. While Lloyd says Kate Spade has worked with the project on a small scale for several years, "now that I've met these women, I feel responsible to come up with work for them to do so they can survive."

Company COO Craig Leavitt, who was also part of our party, agrees. Currently, Kate Spade employs 300 Bosnian women—who make $7–$15 per piece, double the wages for comparable work in the region—and Leavitt plans to increase the size of WfWI's workforce in 2010. "I've always felt successful fashion companies need to find ways to give back to the customer," he says. "But it's so rare to make an appropriate business decision that is proactive and can have an impact and change the world."

But first things first. The most tangible form of support I can offer while we're here is to shop, and shop I do. I buy enough hand-knitted socks and sweaters to outfit my friends and family twice over. It's easy going—the knits are some of the most colorful, cheerful I've ever seen. Despite their makers' hardships, the mittens, hats, and scarves are suffused with joy.

Lloyd is using our journey into the mountains to do her own version of shopping. The Slavs are known for their quirky, bold sense of color and graphic interpretation of ancient designs, and she's researching new ideas and techniques for next season's collection (the better to keep WfWI's employees busy through the winter). "These women are so good at the kind of playful wit we cherish at Kate Spade," she says, as we lust over a lavender, lime green, and orange rug and a turquoise baby sweater with bright purple and green stripes. "I'd like to design something with polka dots and the felted pom-poms they make, but in a modern way—like confetti or snow falling from the sky."

Questing for creative inspiration in the mountains of Bosnia can mean getting your hands dirty, but Lloyd is happy to oblige. At one riverside home, the knitters take her into the water to learn the oldfashioned process of beating, boiling, and hang-drying wool. "It was surreal being in the river with these women, but seeing the beauty of their craftsmanship at a time when production is factory-oriented was so moving. You can't believe where these Kate Spade mittens are made!"

The Bosnian project has been such a success that Kate Spade recently enlisted WfWI to hire workers for them in Rwanda. Beyond using the power of the purse to help the war survivors, Lloyd says people can become pen pals with them—a form of support that several women told us they cherish even more than the financial. "In the West, women's rights are viewed as human rights," Lloyd says, "but for these women, it was all taken away. They were used and abused. If there is anything I can say about what I've seen in Bosnia, it is to pay attention and ask yourself what you can do."